Colorful Family-Friendly Home in Arkansas

On any given day the Arkansas home of Ashley and Michael Mosley and their five children, ages teen to toddler, could breezily outpace the bustle of the reality show Kate Plus Eight. It’s not unusual for the Mosley family room to teem with the oldest daughter’s cheerleading squad practice as Ashley whips up a scrumptious home-cooked meal in the kitchen while father and son rumble away on their four-wheelers across their 1,000-acre property.

“A lot of activity goes on in this house,” confirms Little Rock interior designer Tobi Fairley, who worked on this project from the ground up. Fairley, who’s made a name for herself as a bold colorist and exponent of youthful traditional design, turned to her favorite decorating element, color, to jump-start the design.

“I found the aqua-and-chocolate color palette we wanted in fabrics, which is where I almost always start a project,” she says. “I wanted a palette with a little bit of a vintage feel reminiscent of a Georgian farmhouse—those almost minty colors—but updated.”

Resting on 1,000 acres, the Mosley house was inspired by Tennessee’s celebrated Blackberry Farm.

The home’s most color-saturated space, the dining room, began with Fairley’s selection of the draperies’ rich chocolate-and-aqua floral. Next came the round chairs’ chocolate gingham check for a nod to country life, followed by a solid chocolate linen on the two modern wingback end chairs. The sophisticated solid-brown fabric brings the design up a notch to dodge a full-on country immersion. But the most striking color move comes forth on the walls. “We painted the paneling and all the moldings aqua, as they would’ve been in an old farmhouse,” Fairley explains.

The aqua that’s so pronounced in the dining room is actually introduced before even taking a single step indoors. Honoring an old Southern tradition, Fairley painted the front porch’s ceiling blue. The same aqua reasserts itself in the entry, on both the front door and furnishings.

Other important intros include the entry’s gingham stairway runner and oval window, both a wink to farmhouse attitude. Even the staircase is site-appropriate. “I’m a fan of simpler, straight staircases that don’t feel too grand, especially for a farmhouse,” Fairley says. One of the family’s tables was the right scale for the entry, so Fairley painted it a rough-hewn aqua and nestled it against the staircase. “Because it’s so leggy, I added some warmth, dimension, and softness by pushing the big ottoman underneath it.” The ottoman fabric, she explains, offsets the absence of a textile on the floor.

“The entry is like the invitation to a good party,” she says. “It sets the tone for what’s to come.” With kids running in and out of the house, Fairley wanted to avoid an area rug for the wide hallway, but she still wanted interest underfoot. Staining the wood flooring two shades of brown in an overscale diamond pattern delivered the desired visual interest while also debuting brown as the second most significant color in the palette.

The island’s pale blue finish creates transition to the aqua dining room. Bar stools include seats upholstered in a Kravet solid and backs in a red-and-white stripe. Pendant lights are finished with a cobalt blue coating. Subway tiles line the wall behind a stainless Wolf range.

The living room is the most formal space. Its textures are soft and its textiles rich and lustrous, starting with the aqua silk-and-wool carpet that’s been cut into a luxurious area rug. Fairley chose velvet for several furnishings, including the sofa and two ottomans. “Velvet,” she says, “gives a little of a vintage look,” as does the wall and ceiling’s soft celadon paint color.

Silk curtains introduce the living room’s dreamy palette of lavender, gray, and aqua.

Every color in the room can be found in the striped silk draperies and in the wing chairs’ floral, which was the foundation fabric for the design. “The wingback chairs were existing, and I love their classic form. One of my favorite things to do is to paint these classic pieces so they’re not so serious.” Pale lavender transforms the chair legs with youthful vitality.

A chevron fabric that designer Tobi Fairley created and used for window panels, plus a classic plaid on the armchair and a medallion pattern on the wool rug, energize the blue-and-white family room. Red accents including a leather chair, throw pillows on the sofa, and a striped fabric on a turned-wood bench inject a touch of American flair. A substantial chandelier from Currey & Company enhances curved beams.

The tall-ceilinged family room with its reclaimed wood beams is spacious enough for a gathering of the extended family. “It’s about piling in people and gathering around the fire,” says Fairley. Her own chevron fabric energizes—and warms up—the room’s many windows. One of her most inventive solutions was cutting a carpet to run not only the length of the room but also to its wings, knitting together areas that could’ve looked isolated.

Pairs of lounge chairs and ottomans from Lee Industries are covered in blue velvet from Fabricut.

The second-floor teen den, where the kids can relax with their friends, boasts a retro palette of aqua and red. The main seating area features swivel chairs that are positioned around an ottoman. A curtain partition creates a second gathering area defined by a sofa with a colorful map hanging above it. Stripes throughout—on the ottoman, rug, pendant light shade, and window shades—reference a vintage time. “I thought of old ticking stripes that you might find in a farmhouse when I chose these,” Fairley says.

In the master suite, Tobi returned to chocolate brown for its quiet sophistication appropriate for an adult retreat, pairing it with a beautiful grass green. “While I like the whole monochromatic look,” says Ashley, “it’s not me. We are a fun family, and we wanted that to show. Tobi achieved exactly what we wanted our home to say.”

The Hickory Chair four-poster is covered in a Greek key motif that Fairley designed. Linens are from Matouk.

A tufted Lee Industries chocolate-colored ottoman is trimmed in Duralee fabric at the hemline and adds functional luxury to the master bath. Circa Lighting fixtures on the mirror provide illumination at the vanity equipped with Kohler faucets.